Reblogged: Report on SnowCon 2013

[dianahsieh]

(Whoops! I can’t believe that I forgot to post this months ago… but, as I often say, better later than never!)

First and foremost… I’ve set the dates for SnowCon 2014… so mark your calendars! SnowCon 2014 will start in Denver on Friday, February 28th with lectures and social gatherings. It’ll move to Frisco on the morning of Monday, March 3rd for play in the snow and socializing, wrapping up on Friday, March 7th. For further announcements, subscribe to the low-volume SnowCon Email List.

I’m pleased to report that SnowCon 2013 was superduperwonderfullyfabulous!

Let’s start with the pictures… and don’t miss the video of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn529_LP5uY!

We had a small crowd of eight people staying at the SnowCondo in Frisco from Monday to Friday, mostly the same crowd as last year. We skied and snowboarded. We snowshoed. We ate yummy breakfasts and dinners together. We played Cards Against Humanity. We talked. We laughed like crazy. We had a damn good time.

On Friday, SnowCon moved to Denver. 30 people — mostly from Colorado — attended the weekend events. We began with a social gathering (plus dinner) Chez Hsieh on Friday evening. On Saturday, we enjoyed five excellent lectures, then dinner at a local restaurant in the evening. (I particularly enjoyed Howard’s lecture on frac’ing and Pablo’s lecture on opera… and I was not alone!) On Sunday, we had brunch Chez Hsieh, with me making yummy paleo-banana pancakes, and Arthur making omelets to order… shirtless, of course. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn529_LP5uY!) People stayed and chatted through the afternoon.

For me, this third SnowCon was the most enjoyable and least stressful for me to produce. The schedule was pretty relaxed, particularly in Frisco. For the Denver portion, hosting events at our house and nearby made the work much easier. I was particularly impressed with how well our neighborhood clubhouse worked as a venue for the lectures. We had plenty of space, comfortable chairs, a good wall to display the PowerPoint, and a full kitchen. I was very pleased by the catered (and delivered) lunch provided by Garbanzo too. The meals and snacks I provided got rave reviews too.

Alas, this was the most difficult and stressful SnowCon for me to plan, thanks to our various major house repairs. The house was under construction, without heat downstairs, and a complete wreck until just a few days before we left for Frisco. Next year, we won’t have anything like that going on… I hope!

Mostly, I plan to keep SnowCon 2014 very similar to SnowCon 2013. I’ll likely rent the same condo in Frisco. I’ll host the Friday Social and Sunday Brunch Chez Hsieh. I’ll rent our neighborhood clubhouse for the lectures on Saturday. I have a three major improvements to make too:

• The weekend in Denver will happen before the week in Frisco, as you can see from the schedule at the top of this post. That way, people from out-of-town will be able to acclimate more easily to the altitude. Also, I won’t be obliged to do any last-minute planning for the Denver portion while in Frisco. (That’s always a drag.)
• I’ll start planning and promoting the conference far earlier. That way, more people from Colorado and elsewhere might be able to join us.
• I want to make the lectures even more keenly focused on positive, useful, interesting topics — like awesome new technology, practical ethics, appreciating art, and so on. The lectures were darn good on that score this year, but I want to do even better next year.

If you might be interested in attending SnowCon 2014, please feel free to email me with any other suggestions that you might have. Don’t forget to join the low-volume SnowCon Email List too.

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